Alli Webb, Founder of Drybar

their own way. Consider this your real world MBA designed for the new now. I'm Kim Azzarelli and thanks so much for joining us today. In something new and intriguing arrived on the scene, a hair salon that did only one thing, no color, no cuts, just blowouts. It was called dry Bar and locations were soon popping up across the country. Dry Bar has been acclaimed as a beauty industry disruptor. It was one of the top one billion ideas of Entrepreneur magazine, and founder Ali Webb has been

named to Fortune's forty Under forty list. And it all started when I stay at home mother decided to launch a mobile hair salon. Please enjoy my conversation with dry Bar founder Ali Webb. Thanks so much for joining us thanks for having me. So I dare say that most people know what dry bar is, but tell us a

little bit about it and why you started it. Well, the idea really came from the fact that I was born with naturally curly hair, and my whole life, you know, especially as a kid, I just I didn't really like it. I didn't know how to deal with my you know, crazy frizzy hair. I grew up in South Florida where it was like so much humidity in the air that my hair vis is always unruly, and I didn't really like it, and I didn't know how to tame it. And you know, fast forward to many different jobs and

careers and other paths that I took. I eventually went to beauty school, completely fell in love with it, and became a hair stylist. And I spent most of my twenties, uh doing hair and perfecting my own blowout. And while I was cutting hair professionally in a salon, you know, I loved getting through the haircut to do the blow out, and that was just the part that was like the most exciting for me about the process. But you know, I never you know, the idea of dry bar and

a bloody bar like never like entered my mind. However, in retrospect, you know, the idea is something that like I as a kid would have loved because I used to beg my mom to blow out my own my hair and she wasn't very good at it. She was an hair style was um. But anyways, I UM. I met my well now ex husband when I was living in New York City and we got married, moved to

southern California. I had my two boys who are now Goal four team in sixteen, and you know, and I was a stay at home mom for five and I really thought i'd like hit the jackpot on that, and I loved the idea that I was able to stay home with my boys. And and while I loved it, and I obviously loved my kids tremendously, after five years of being home, you know, stay at home mom, I just got like the bug and the urge, like the itch to get back out there and do something for myself,

but at my own pace. So I decided to start a mobile blow up business, which was again taking the thing that I loved about when I did hair and and turn it into this little business. And it was you know, it just meant to be a smell business. And it was called straight at Home. And Cam, who's my ex husband, and you know, we're on very good terms, but he is a creative genius and he's the you know, he's really the brains behind the brand for dry bar.

And he made me this one little page website called straight at Home dot com and I started posting it all over the place on all the mommy blogs because I had, you know, we so immersed in the mommy community because when we first moved to l A, I was having my first son, so I the only people I really knew in LA were mom So that's why I was catering to I started this business. I was only charging forty dollars, which you know, to get somebody to come to your house for four years is like

unheard of. But for me, it was just more like, how can I make this like attainable and something that

people will actually want to do a lot. And so I started this business and I got so busy so fast just operating the mobile business that I was like and I feel like, why isn't there a place that just does blow up, you know, in a beautiful space, in a cool environment, you know, there was like fantastic SAMs of the World, and if you're in New York, it was like John Louis Devide and you know, those kind of businesses that are great businesses, but you know,

and women like me who have naturally curly hair, I think we're figuring it out and they were finding their person at those places, but there was nothing cohesive and a great experience for just to blow up. Yeah. I have to remember very clearly when you came on the scene, because you're right, there was just nothing like that. It was just such a novel thought. Yeah. Yeah, so you have the idea, um and you think, why there's something like that, and so how do you do you get

started on that? Well, because my my brother Michael Landa, who is my business partner, we'd always been really close and in a former life we had opened up a couple of Nicole Miller boutiques, and we were you know, our parents were entrepreneurs, so I kind of had always have had that kind of entrepreneurial like spirit or d n A. And when Michael saw how much success I was having with my mobile business, you know, and I went to him and said, I feel like we should open,

or I should open like a brick and mortar. Instead of me going to them, they come to me. And you know, Michael, it was like a little bit loop warm on the idea at first, because his wife has like stick straight hair, like the hair of my dreams, you know that like just grows out of her hair, that head, but that way. And I was always like, you know, those kind of girls like always mystified me

because mine did not. And so anyways, I went to him and I said, I want to do this, you know, but I don't want you to learn I can't do it alone. Would you be willing to, you know, help me? Obviously from a financial place because I didn't have the money to do it, and from a you know, business perspective, because he's just a really naturally smart business man, you know.

And he like he very quickly talked him into it, and he knew the kind of hair I had and whatever and um, but he he more thought it was like you know, he used to say, like the women of l A have too much time and too much money on their hands, so this will work here. And I was like, I don't think so, dude, Like I think that like anywhere there's women. You know, most women, the majority of women, like struggle with doing their own hair. You know, some are better than others, but and there's

nothing like that like salon feeling blowout. So, you know, he very quickly became interested in and I think more if you were to ask him, he would tell you it's more from the perspective of like, hey, I want to help my little sister, um, you know, get this business off the ground. He had worked for Yahoo in the early days that he made some money and was

willing to, like, you know, do this with me. And at the time, you know, he was like, uh, you know, I'll give you sweat equity and I'll put up all the money. And I didn't know what that meant, and obviously I do now. And just a side note, full circle moment, is this is this new jewelry business that I started it um called back At and Quill, the girl that I basically invested in, I've put up all the money and she's getting sweat equity. So it's just funny eleven years later to be that on the other

side of that. Um, yeah, it's really cool. But anyway, so Michael, you know, Michael took the chance, and he um he was he thought that it was a great idea. And then you know and Cam my ex husband, who's, like I said, just such a brilliant creative. He was also like, you know, you get your nails done once a week and I really don't notice, but when you get your hair blown out, it's the first thing I noticed. So as an advertising guy who's pretty cynical, he thought

it was a great idea. So that really helps give me the momentum and confidence that I needed. And so we all kind of started working on the things that we all knew how to do. I mean, I was like figuring out how to like get a salon, you know, quote and quote salon up and running and with all

the things, the millions of things that that requires. And I was I felt like I spent most of my life on the phone with like the collegethology board, and you know, Michael was getting all are like you know, utilities, and I mean he still tells the story to this day how he like lost so many hours of his life to a T and T trying to get our

phones connected. I mean it was just like the minutia that you're in when you're trying to start a business, um and and then start finding the location, the lease, and we had to personally guarantee that first lease. And I mean it was like a beautiful, like disaster trying to get it off the ground, but you know, we did. And like many startups, we ran out of money towards

the end because everything became more expensive. And Michael had brought in Josh Hitler, who's our architect still to this day, and he's amazing these this Harvard Award winning architect, and he, you know, gave us a deal. We gave him some equity, and you know, we just we ran out of money and had to get investors at the you know, the eleventh hour. But but in a nutshell, that's how it

all started. And then it was just like Gangbusters. Once we opened, it was so bananas and busy and crazy and we and and it was in the middle of a recession. And yeah, well you've hit on so many points that I think everybody faces when you when you start a business, and it's just so great. I mean, what's exciting to hear about really is ten eleven years later,

it looks like a perfect business. But I think, you know, you're really showing what it means in the beginning when you want to get started and what that's all about. And I feel like that's something that people don't recognize enough after they've had a lot of success, as you have. We'll be back with Senecas made by women after this short break. So you know, you're you're going through those

really really hard times. I mean, of course you're in business with your brother and your husband, so maybe that's a little bit helpful, but still, you know, I'm sure those there are those dark nights where you're like, Wow, why did I do this? How did you deal with that? Oh? Yeah, well, I mean I think it was like, I mean, it's funny that you say it looks like a perfect business,

because it, gosh, it's like so far from that. And you know, there there definitely were times that it was like I don't remember ever feeling like I didn't want to do it or so unmanageable, but I you know, but I definitely did feel like it was just so unbelievably all encompassing, you know. And I had little kids at the time, and it was just the first like six months I was at the store every single day which we opened seven days a week, so I have

such a hard time, you know. So I was so thrust into this and not complaining, I'm so grateful for it, but I was so thrust into it, like talking about being thrown in the deep end and not knowing how to swim, and I just didn't know how to like do all this. It was like learning on the job, and you know, it was the pace was so much faster than any of us had anticipated. So it was like I'm playing catchup and trying to figure everything out,

which was a great problem to have. Um. So it was you know, it was overwhelming, but it was also overwhelming and exciting and intoxicating and amazing and so stressful and just you know, it was like all the emotions, um, you know, wrapped into one. But but but mostly, I mean I look back on that time so far only and it was just such a rush that you know, people were loving this business and we're having this amazing impact on all these women, and now we're starting to

provide all these jobs. And it was like in the you know, we're in the middle of a recession. It was just it was so it was so cool and you know, and while building, it was hard, and and you know, it's there's so many challenges with this business and you know we as you might imagine the managing our stylists and labor, and there's and and clients, and it's like it's it's a very like mixed bag of problems.

You can't believe. I mean, someone as a joke, brought brought us a wacka mall machine one because it's like that's really what it's like, you know, I mean, it is really what it was like. I mean every day you could expect a phone call like I mean, you name it. You know, like we had there was a there was a stinkhole and in our flat Iron store when we opened, there was like that. Let's mentioned how many times like stories didn't open because whoever was opening

it slept, don't over slap. Yeah, I mean I have to say a sinkhole in the flat Iron district. That is that's a big one. That is a surprise. Yeah, but like the water wouldn't come on, the hot water wouldn't come on. It was just like you name it. There was something literally every day. So it was. But but it's also like this amazing fun challenge too. So

I look back on it very fondly. So actually, that's that's such an interesting point because you know, at the beginning or probably in any business, in most businesses, there's always things that go wrong, and they go wrong a lot um, So how do you kind of shift your mindset to rather than feeling like everything's an emergency and you're freaking out over every sinkhole that comes up, Rather, how do you shift it to kind of embrace it

and kind of live in that uncertainty. Well, I think you have to have a pretty thick skin, and you know, and I would love to say that I always did, but I think it was like it's a it's an overtime learned kind of behavior that like, you know, and and I think it's also on par with like, you know, like customer complaints and customers not being happy or like getting something wrong or being too busy or not someone

that liking to blowout. You know, it's like you kind of learn, it's like you brace yourself for that stuff. And um, I remember early on having to you know, when people weren't unhappy, when something went wrong, whatever happened, and having to like deal with that, and it's like it's like the best way I can I can equate it to you is like I don't know if you ever take cold showers, but I do for a lot

of different reasons. And it's like when you first get in, it just hurts and it's uncomfortable and it's terrible, but then you like your body like it's like okay with it after a few seconds. And I think it's like that when you're dealing with all the things that are coming. It's like it hurts and stings for a second, and then you just like go into Okay, how are we going to deal with this? How are we going to

fix it? You know, it's really easy, I think, as an entrepreneur or a boss or really anybody to get bob down and they're like whoa is me? And your this really stucks and blah blah blah and feel bad for yourself. But you kind of have to snap yourself out of that just go into like fix it mode and how do we make this better? And how do

we make sure it doesn't happen again? You know, And then that mindset of like it hurts for a second, but we have to just keep powering through, and you know, and I think that over time, I got a thicker skin. I mean, there were certainly times that I didn't, But for the most part, you learn how to like roll with the punges and deal with all the stuff that comes up. And if you really are good, you can remember and those moments, which is almost impossible. But like

there is a reason and a lesson here. You know, it's much easier to see that in retrospect, but there always is, you know, there's always some sort of learning that comes out of, you know, anything that goes wrong. Well, I think that's that's kind of to me, seems like the key to life generally. Yeah, two points that you just made. One is certainly understanding how to deal with pain or how you you yourself can deal with discomfort.

And I heard a great piece of advice about trying to learn to reinterpret pain, and I think that's what kind of those lance are instrums of the world, do, etcetera. You know, this is kind of like a marathon or a race. You know, you've got to just sort of know how to reinterpret those difficult times. But then what you just said to me, it is sort of the key, which is how do you draw something out of all this that you can then learn from, and that to

me seems like really a life lesson that you've learned there. Yeah, and you know, I'm thirty six years old of you know, to like teenage kids. I've gone through divorce, Like, I've learned a lot of life lessons, you know, and and I've gotten a lot better at dealing with them. Um. I was just listening to some and a master class.

I don't know if you follow that account, but it's like there was a mindful master and he was talking about how you have to you know, be just as like keenly like focus on the bad quote unquote bad things. It's a good things, you know, and then you don't aren't is overwhelmed with the suffering of it. You know. It's like, which is so much harder, so much easier said than done, you know, but it is it is

something to think about ponder, you know. I Mean. The other thing that's funny about that, which is about life, I guess, is that you know, you never really know what's bad or good right Like the time you think this is definitely gonna be the best thing, and then you're like, oh that was the worst and the thing that you thought was the worst thing. Later on you're like, thank god, that happened. So it's really hard to know. And I guess if we can separate ourselves a little

bit from that, that helps a lot. But speaking of which, we're in the middle of COVID or hopefully towards the end of the COVID pandemic here. But we're in a pandemic and obviously you're in a business that's very physical.

So how have you had to pivot during this period? Well, I mean the first like, I mean, we're you know, we're just over a year and it's like you know that we closed down very early and had some fits and starts with opening back up, but you know, ultimately have only recently opened almost all of our stores back up, and it's on a slower capacity and we're not able.

It's definitely not like the driver you know and love right now, which is okay, and we're building back up to that, you know, because the separation and all of that um and and there was a lot of pivoting. I mean, it just they got our business like it was. It was so hard, and you know, we we were able to survive a little bit it more than we might have been able to otherwise if we hadn't we had sold our product division, Like I mean, what like days before things really went cret It was the time.

It was unbelievable. So that was able to help like bridge the gap for us to be able to like stay afloat um, you know, but it was it was really challenging to get you know, for our employees and our managers and like these people that had worked so hard for so long, it was just like nothing, you know, there's like nothing we could do um. And that was like just such a devastating blow. And we did our very best to like stay in touch with our with our teams at a regular basis and try to keep

morale up. But and we did a lot of stuff with like promoting products and how to do lots at home and all of that stuff. But you know, there's there's no way to spin it. It's just it's and yeah, and and we are we are, you know, luckily you know, gaining momentum again. And I think again the silver lighting here is that like people are really excited to get back out, are getting brought out again. We're seeing like

the books are filling up very quickly again. So um, you know, and we didn't think it would be any other way, but it is. We have a lot of investors and all of that, so it is like, you know, it's a pretty daunting situation to be in, but we I think we are just about on the other side

of it, or getting close to it. So you've started this business, You've just started another business, So you have a wealth of advice for listeners out there who right now are thinking about starting something on their own but feel that, you know, this might not be the right time, or you know, they wish they were more prepared. Is there advice you would give them, Well, I would say, don't worry about being prepared. I was not prepared, you know.

I think that what happens is I think people get in this like, you know, they have to have everything figured out before they start a business. And the truth of it, at least in my experience, is that you know, you there's just so much more that you don't know then you know when you're starting a business, and so you know, of course like prepared much as you can and do as much as you can, but but but also like just just do it. And I think people get stuck in like analysis paralysis and like, oh, I

don't really know how to do sometimes do that. It's like you know, you just kind of go and start and you you know, you figure it out day by day. And I think it's this like it doesn't have to be perfect, you know, to start, and that that's always you know. I mean, it's like, you know, this this other business I started back in a quill, which is a Juliy business, which is a direct to consumer, which is like so out of my wheelhouse. I've never run

a director consumer business. I know nothing about it, but I started this business anyways. And it's like, you know, we have good days and we have bad days, and like some things is that we're doing are working, and some things that aren't doing aren't working. But I certainly like they're making tons of mistakes. We're doing tons of things wrong and then we're like, yeah, we're not gonna do that again, and and you know, and it's just this like there's so much more I didn't know about

this business than I knew. All I knew was that like I thought this was a good idea. I could wrap some great branding around it. Meredith like she's so good at what she does and like, let's just get the business off the ground. And you know, we we we in terms of being prepared, we you know, we made a new website, we we cam did, we did the branding for me. We you know, we hired a

web guy. We've we hired a handful of people to help us, like get this off the ground, very hard time, and and we said it and we're learning so much as we go, you know, so it's not perfect. I mean, I wish we could have come out of the gates, like with much stronger numbers, much people, more people coming

to our website. But it's you know, it's just it's you know, I do practice that my own advice with like let's just go and let's see what happens, you know, And and that's you know, kind of how we're operating. And I think it's like I don't I'm sure that mentality is not for everybody, but you know, for for me, that's always kind of been how I how I operate.

And you know, we squeeze our massage business. You know, Brittany Driscoll who used to run marketing at draw Bar, she's the CEO of that and our co founder and you know, she's much more like data driven and organized, and you know, she's such a good thing to Mayang because she does have all of that. But there is a fair amount of like we're learning a lot of things as we go here too, and we are adjusting and pivoting and changing all sorts of things even right now.

And the business has been you know, well technically open for two years, but one of those was covid. Um. You know, so there's just like a million different ways. I hate the expression is gonna cat, but that's the one that comes to mind. You know. It's just like there's a million different ways to to do it. And um, the one thing that you should that I believe you shouldn't do is like wait for the quote unquote perfect time,

because there truly never is. I totally agree. Well, I mean, you have the experience to to show for it, so we appreciate it. And clearly your approach is working for you. So UM, we appreciate you sharing that with Thank you so thanks for joining us on the show. And you know, we look forward to getting our hair done soon and often, um, and we look forward to what you're doing next. Thank you so much. This has been a lot of fun. There are so many valuable lessons we can learn from

Ali Webb. Here are three things I took from the conversation. First, if you want to build a successful business, start with what you love and what you know. Ali loved doing blowouts, and after five years as a stay at home mother, she was itching to do something different. The only people she knew in l A were moms, so she launched a mobile blow up business catering to mothers and advertise it on all the mommy blogs. Second, as an entrepreneur,

be prepared to deal with discomfort. There are a million opportunities for things to go wrong, and they will, but as Ali says, you have to snap out of it and go into fix it mode. When you do, you'll also find that each misstep has a lesson in it. With practice, you can teach yourself to see that the so called bad things maybe good things and things you can learn from. Finally, you don't have to know everything in order to run a successful business. In fact, you can't,

so don't succumb to analysis paralysis. Says all be prepared and learn all that you can, of course, but then take the leap dive in and figure things out along the Way. Made by Women is brought to you by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with support from founding partner PNG